The voyage of the "First Fleet" from Britain to the new colony of New South Wales was not only a military enterprise, it also had a distinct scientific purpose. Bri tain's fifth Astronomer Royal, Nevil Maskelyne, had selected William Dawes, a promising young Marine with a propensity for astronomical observations, as his protégé. Maskelyne convinced the British Board of Longitude to suppl y Dawes with a suite of state-of-the-art instruments and allow the young Ma rine to establish an observatory in the new settlement. The Astronomer Roya l may have had a dual motivation, one driven by strategic national interest s combined with a personal investment linked to the suggested re-appearance of a comet in the southern sky. With the unexpected assistance of the Fren ch Lapérouse expedition, between 1788 and 1791 Dawes established not one bu t two observatories within a kilometre of Sydney's present-day city centre. Motivated by persisting confusion in the literature, we explore the histor ical record to narrow down the precise location of Dawes' observatory. We c onclude that the memorial plaque attached to Sydney Harbour Bridge indicate s an incorrect location. Overwhelming contemporary evidence -- maps, charts and pictorial representations -- implies that Dawes' observatory was locat ed on the northeastern tip of the promontory presently known as The Rocks ( formerly Dawes' Point), with any remains having vanished during the constru ction of the Harbour Bridge.
Richard d e Grijs is a prolific public speaker on topics ranging from astronomy and a strophysics to maritime history. Richard holds professional appointments as professor of astrophysics at Macquarie University and as Executive Directo r of the International Space Science Institute--Beijing. He recently publis hed the first detailed biography of William Dawes, the astronomer assigned to the “First Fleet” from England to Australia (1787–1788). His academic ac colades include the 2012 Selby Award from the Australian Academy of Science , a 2017 Erskine Award from the University of Canterbury (New Zealand) and the 2023 Excellence in Research Integrity award from Macquarie University's Faculty of Science and Engineering. He also received the 2022 Blacktown Ma yoral History Prize and the 2022 Hella Mannheimer Award (Hektoen Internatio nal Journal of Medical Humanities).
Note: This will be a n in-person presentation at the Green Point Observatory. Members will also receive an invitation to join online for those who cannot make it to the GP O.
X-ALT-DESC;FMTTYPE=text/html:The voyage of the "First Fleet" from Britain to the new colony of New South Wales was not only a military enterprise, it also had a distinct scientific purpose. Bri tain's fifth Astronomer Royal, Nevil Maskelyne, had selected William Dawes, a promising young Marine with a propensity for astronomical observations, as his protégé. Maskelyne convinced the British Board of Longitude to suppl y Dawes with a suite of state-of-the-art instruments and allow the young Ma rine to establish an observatory in the new settlement. The Astronomer Roya l may have had a dual motivation, one driven by strategic national interest s combined with a personal investment linked to the suggested re-appearance of a comet in the southern sky. With the unexpected assistance of the Fren ch Lapérouse expedition, between 1788 and 1791 Dawes established not one bu t two observatories within a kilometre of Sydney's present-day city centre. Motivated by persisting confusion in the literature, we explore the histor ical record to narrow down the precise location of Dawes' observatory. We c onclude that the memorial plaque attached to Sydney Harbour Bridge indicate s an incorrect location. Overwhelming contemporary evidence -- maps, charts and pictorial representations -- implies that Dawes' observatory was locat ed on the northeastern tip of the promontory presently known as The Rocks ( formerly Dawes' Point), with any remains having vanished during the constru ction of the Harbour Bridge.
Richard de Grijs is a prolific public speaker on topics ranging from astronomy and astrophysics to maritime history. Richard holds professi onal appointments as professor of astrophysics at Macquarie University and as Executive Director of the International Space Science Institute--Beijing . He recently published the first detailed biography of William Dawes, the astronomer assigned to the “First Fleet” from England to Australia (1787–17 88). His academic accolades include the 2012 Selby Award from the Australia n Academy of Science, a 2017 Erskine Award from the University of Canterbur y (New Zealand) and the 2023 Excellence in Research Integrity award from Ma cquarie University's Faculty of Science and Engineering. He also received t he 2022 Blacktown Mayoral History Prize and the 2022 Hella Mannheimer Award (Hektoen International Journal of Medical Humanities).
Note: This will be an in-person presentation at the Green Point Observatory . Members will also receive an invitation to join online for those who cann ot make it to the GPO.
DTSTAMP:20260605T224743 DTSTART;TZID=Australia/Sydney:20260305T193000 DTEND;TZID=Australia/Sydney:20260305T213000 SEQUENCE:0 TRANSP:OPAQUE END:VEVENT END:VCALENDAR